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George
George and Mildred was a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1979. It was a spin-off from Man About the House and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper. The premise of the series had George and Mildred leaving their flat as depicted in Man About the House and moving to a modern, upmarket housing estate. Their arrival horrifies their snobbish neighbour Jeffrey Fourmile, an estate agent who despairs that the Ropers' presence will devalue his home. It was written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. Like many sitcoms of the day,George and Mildred was also turned into a film, which was dedicated to actressYootha Joyce who died suddenly in 1980, just as the cast had been looking forward to recording a sixth series. Cast *Yootha Joyce - Mildred Roper *Brian Murphy - George Roper *Nicholas Bond-Owen - Tristram Fourmile *Avril Elgar - Ethel Humprey *Norman Eshley - Jeffrey Fourmile *Sheila Fearn - Ann Fourmile *Gretchen Franklin - Mildred's Mother *Roy Kinnear - Jerry *Simon Lloyd - Tarquin Fourmile (from series 3) *Reginald Marsh - Humphrey Pumphrey *Jeanette Farrier as Jane the receptionist (series 1 only) Plot George and Mildred Roper have left their old house after receiving a compulsory purchase order from the Council and move to 46 Peacock Crescent in Hampton Wick. While Mildred enjoys the chance to better herself in her new surroundings, she is always being thwarted - usually by the lazy, and generally unemployed George, who has no interest in climbing the social ladder, and also continues to show a lack of interest in sexual relations with Mildred. George and Mildred's next-door neighbours are Jeffrey Fourmile, a snobbish estate agent, and his wife Ann. Ann and Mildred become good friends, but Jeffrey is frequently irritated by George, with their spats providing much of the show's humour. The Fourmiles have a young son, Tristram, who gets on well with George, much to the chagrin of Jeffrey (particularly because Jeffrey supports theConservative Party, while George puts socialist ideas into Tristram's head). In series three Ann gives birth to a second child, Tarquin. Mildred's snobbish sister Ethel and her wealthy husband Humphrey occasionally visit, as does Mildred's mother. Mildred often makes subtle and unsubtle digs at Ethel's age, or social status and pretensions, when Ethel visits. George's friend Jerry, a jack-of-all-trades, also visits, much to Mildred's annoyance. Jerry is fond of referring to Mildred as "Mildew". In the first series, George buys Mildred a Yorkshire Terrier called Truffles (played by dog actor Pussy Galore) after the Ropers are unable to adopt a child (Mildred later registers her with the kennel club as "Truffles duBorbon Fitzwilliam III). Episodes Series One (1976, 10 episodes) Series Two (1977, 7 ep.) The title sequence for series two features Mildred worriedly getting into a motorcycle sidecar. George puts on his goggles and pulls away, but the sidecar, with Mildred sitting in it, is left at the kerb. The motorcycle, a 1933 Brough Superior was also in Dad's Army. (Chased by a runaway wheel packed with explosives, Captain Mainwaring, Pike, and Hodges commandeer the bike from a man trimming a hedge.). The motorcycle is now at the London Motorcycle Museum. Series Three (1978, 6 ep.) Series Four (1978, 7 ep.) Series Five (1979, 8 ep.) Props George Roper's Brough motorcycle combination shown to regular comic effect in the opening titles of series 2, 3 and 5 is now exhibited at the London Motorcycle Museum. Stage show During 1977, Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce, joined at one stage by Reginald Marsh, toured in a successful stage version of the programme. In 1976 & 1977, Murphy and Joyce appeared as the ugly sisters, Georgina and Mildred, in the London Palladiumpantomime, Cinderella. Film version Following the fifth TV series a feature film version of the series was produced. The film was written not by Cooke and Mortimer but by Dick Sharples. The Fourmiles only played a small role in the film. The film focused on the original title characters celebrating their wedding anniversary, at Mildred's insistence, at a swanky London hotel, and featured several guest stars including Stratford Johns, Kenneth Cope and the up-and-coming Vicki Michelle. The film was neither a critical nor box office success.[1] The Abrupt End The final caption of the George and Mildred film read 'The End - or is it the beginning?' It was to prove the abrupt end: Yootha Joycedied from chronic alcoholism on 24 August 1980, before the film was even released. Her friends and colleagues were astonished to discover that she had been drinking a litre of brandy every day. People were unaware of this consumption as it never affected her performance or professionalism. In 2004, on an audio commentary on the Australian Umbrella DVD release of George and Mildred: the Complete Series 2, Brian Murphy revealed that there had been plans for a sixth series of eight episodes of the show. These were to have been recorded in late 1980. Murphy also revealed that this was due to have been the final series of George and Mildred, as he and Yootha Joyce wished to focus on other work. However, despite scripts being written, Joyce's hospitalisation and death put an enforced end to the show. Her funeral took place on the very day the cast were due to begin rehearsals for the new series. Speaking of their relationship in a 2001 ITV programme, The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce, Murphy said that when they had first met at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop he had, "always regarded Yootha as very stylish and very confident. I was rather over-awed by her at first, full of admiration for her. "At her death, "People said, 'You've lost a working partner' and I said, 'No, I've lost a chum'... and then I realised I've lost my working partnership as well...". Thames Television did talk of producing a spin-off for the character of George, looking at him cope with life as a widower. However, this project did not materialise. But Brian Murphy did reunite with George and Mildred co-star Roy Kinnear and writers Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke for The Incredible Mr. Tanner, a comedy produced for Thames soon after Yootha Joyce's death. Adaptations George and Mildred was adapted in the United States as The Ropers, a spin-off of Three's Company, the US version of Man About the House. Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy appeared, in character as George and Mildred, on the magic show The David Nixon Show. Book "Man About the House - George and Mildred: The Definitive Companion" by Tex Fisher was published on 1 July 2010. The book includes contributions from many of the original cast, including Brian Murphy, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett and Nicholas Bond-Owen. It explains the background and history of both programmes, together with an episode and film guide, full cast biographies, details of the stage play, full catalogue of support cast, and a 1970s Phrase Dictionary. ISBN 978-0-9565634-0-8. The book is published by Deck Chair Publishing.[2] DVD releases This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, as section. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (June 2010) The first DVD release of George and Mildred was from Clear Vision in the UK in 2001 (and simultaneously appeared on VHS). Although, the top of the sleeve says "Series One", the bottom says "episodes 1 to 6", so the remaining four episodes do not appear. Complaints about picture quality of this and the accompanying Man About the House release, and minor edits of the ad break captions, etc. probably went some way to explaining why no more Clear Vision releases materialised. In Australia, the first series was released in May 2003. Unlike the Clear Vision release of series one, all 10 episodes were included, as were the original ad captions and the Thames TV idents (the music for this is called "Salute to Thames") at the start and original end boards. Many fans from the UK imported these versions instead, not only due to their superiority, but the favourable exchange rates made them no more expensive than the Clear Vision title. Series 2 followed in March 2004 and the movie that same November. Unlike the UK Network release of series 2, the Australian version contained some audio commentaries with series star Brian Murphy. Contract and clearance re-negotiations for all worldwide regions put a halt to Umbrella's plans to proceed with the remaining episodes, and while the shows have been cleared for UK release (as evidenced by the Network releases), Fremantle Media still have not, as of 2007, worked out clearances for the Australian/New Zealand regions yet, so Umbrella's hands are still tied. On Wednesday, 16 July 2008, Series 3 was finally released in Australia, followed by Series 4 on 3 September 2008 and Series 5 on 3 December 2008, Soon after the release of Series 5, Series 3, 4 and 5 were discontinued, at this stage Series 1 and 2 were also out of production but remaining copies were continuing to be sold. In April 2009, Fremantle Media re-released the first three seasons with the same cover art as of the UK releases (Season 1 now being a 2 Disc set as the original version all 10 episodes were on one disc), Season 4 was re-released on 5 November 2009 and Season 5 re-release on 3 December 2009, although some delays occurred. Fremantle re-released Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3 on 3 March 2011 and has new artwork. Fremantle Media have announced the re-release of Series 4 and Series 5 for 1 September 2011.[3][4][5][6][7] The entire first series of George and Mildred was released by Network DVD in Region 2 (UK) in 2005 without the annoying edits or the over-compressed picture quality. The second, third and fourth series were released in 2006. The fifth and final series was released in 2007. The movie has been available in the UK for many years on both video and DVD, both individually and bundled as special double- and triple-bills with other "small screen to big screen" efforts. The complete box set with all 5 seasons has been released in the UK. A book dedicated to the Situation Comedy, entitled The Man About the House and George & Mildred Companion was later published in 2010. Recent broadcasts The show is now shown regularly on Comedy Central Extra in the United Kingdom complete with Thames Television ident. In Spain, it is shown on Cuatro and in Canada, it is shown on Country Canada. In Australia, some episodes were shown on the Seven Network and occasionally on Pay-TV channel, UKTV. Currently, it is shown weeknights on 7Two. It has also been shown in Cuba.UK Gold also repeated the show from 1993-1998, it did return on the UK Gold Classics channel in October 1998, although the channel was only available on Sky Digital and closed after 6 months on air in March 1999.Granada Plus used to repeat the show until the close in 2004. From April 2010, it is also being shown weekdays on ITV3. Category:1976 television series debuts Category:1979 television series endings